1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of electrical terminations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrical connections are commonly used in numerous applications ranging from household appliances to large industrial applications. It is appreciated that in some applications, space is at a premium and electrical wiring is often employed within harsh physical environments.
Common within many industrial electrical connections are the conjunction of two or more electrical components whose wires are connected together by terminal splices. Splices may be routinely used in industrial applications were one electrical component must be wired to a power line fed by a power source. Typically a load is provided to discrete components that are both disconnective and interchangeable providing the ability to disconnect separate pieces for maintenance or replacement. The maintenance of such components is often within a housing such as a motor connection box that conveniently organizes the wires leading from various components, preventing the wires from splaying out unprotected into the environment.
Motor connection boxes are designed to hold the wires within a confined setting and require an efficient use of space. The boxes often have a limited area where wires must be run close together in order to prevent undesirable contact and pressure on adjacent wires and components. Working within the motor boxes and other areas requiring electrical wiring, often involves working within a heated environment with limited movement for the body. Multiple wires and wiring systems are often located within the same motor box within close vicinity of each other. For example, wiring may be located within an oil refinery where several pieces of heavy equipment require connection within each and adjacent machines.
Electrical wires may commonly be spliced together within electrical confines using electrical splice termination lugs providing organization and direction to the wire lines. One currently available electrical splice lug can be seen at www.imperialinc.com/grp015-2.shtml item 0063040. Another currently available electrical splice lug is the 3M™ Scothlock™ one hole lug (part No. 30041). When three or more lugs of this type are used, the bodies of each lug may contact an adjacent lug tangentially in interference, causing two of the lugs to project at an acute angle away from the third lug. Like many similar electrical splice lugs, lugs of such a design suffer from the fact that wires inserted into the lug interiors are subjected to stress and compression against edge of the lug body when more than two of such lug types are connected together. The shape and configuration of such lugs, when connected together, as shown in FIG. 1, often forces the wires to enter inside the lug at acute angles creating both gaps between the wires and stress points where wires contact the lug edge. As will be appreciated, stress and wear on the wires is compounded when the various components often require periodic maintenance and disconnection. Movement, disconnection and reconnection contribute to fatigue and stress on the wires where the wire rub against the lug edges and may fray after periodic disconnection or replacement of components.
As understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the problems with the commercial terminal lugs available in the market today are magnified when industrial applications of increased magnitude require wires of increasingly thicker diameters to provide sufficient load to components. Typical industrial applications use a wire gauge ranging from a number 2 AWG (American Wire Gauge) to a No. 1/0 cable to even larger 1000 MCM cables (MCM is the electrical manufacturing industry representation for thousand circular mils). When major components require relatively larger diameter cables, electrical terminal splice lugs with larger hollow bodies are required. Some electrical connections may also necessitate the splicing of wires with disparate diameters. The larger the splice lugs and the wider the lug differential, the more pronounced the angle and gaps created between the three lug bodies. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 1, the angle in which two of the three wires entering the two angled lugs subjects the wires to a proportional degree of stress and compression against the lug body edges. As will be recognized, as the diameter of the wire increases and the angle of entry into the lug bodies becomes larger, gaps formed between the three entering wires is magnified.
Some electrical terminal splice lugs commonly available also suffer from contributing to an inefficient usage of space at the terminal connection. As will be recognized, one technique often incorporated into the finish of a terminal splice is the insulation of the splice connection by wrapped electrical tape. Once a workman finishes mounting the three electrical terminations together, electrical tape is wrapped around both the exterior circumference of the connection and within the gaps formed between the lugs and around the wires. Connections involving larger diameter wires will sometimes result in a softball size mass of electrical tape insulation surrounding the termination. When the workman is required to disconnect the electrical lines for maintenance or replacement of electrical components, the workman must cut into the softball size webbing of electrical tape at various points, including the tape wrapped around individual strands of wire. As will be appreciated, the need to cut into various surfaces of electrical tape surrounding the termination lead to an increase in time and labor expended in working with electrical termination splice assemblies.